The Guardian reports that Saudi Arabia is the Arab world's largest economy and had discussed the change for a long time, but few expected the change to come so quickly.

The paper adds:

"Some Saudi companies, including food producer Savola, had already announced they would change their own weekend to Friday and Saturday to improve their co-ordination with regional partners.

"The fact that the change is happening in June, after schools have closed and while many Saudis are on holiday before the Ramadan fast starts on 9 July, means it will be less jarring, economists said.

"'Instead of having just three working days aligned with the rest of the world, now you will have a full team for most of the working week that the rest of the world applies. One extra day does play a considerable role in increasing output,' said John Sfakianakis, chief investment strategist at Masic investment in Riyadh."